RUSSIA DELAYING S-400 MISSILE DELIVERIES TO CHINA

Moscow has reputedly stalled on shipping S-400 mobile missile defense systems to Beijing as ties are strained by various controversies, principal of which was the espionage case involving China in Russia recently revealed by Indian news agency ANI.

It claimed that Russia’s FSB nabbed Valery Mitko, director of a social science institute in St. Petersburg affiliated with the Russian government, in February on grounds of treason. Charges leveled at Mitko include feeding Chinese agents intelligence about Russian sonar and submarine detection technologies while he was a visiting scholar at the Dalian Maritime University in northeastern China back in 2016, Frank Chen wrote for Asia Times on July 29, 2020.

Hong Kong’s Ming Pao daily also cited sources within China that Beijing’s embassy in Moscow had a dedicated office “guiding” the regiment of Chinese students, visiting scholars and contractors in the county to glean classified information about the Russian military and aerospace and nuclear sectors.

Chinese news portals including NetEase and Sohu have reported a delay in the delivery of S-400 mobile missiles to the Chinese military. They cited the Chinese Defense Ministry and Beijing’s ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Moscow Zhang Hanhui as blaming the COVID-19 epidemic for the delay. Chinese state media has maintained that China-Russia military ties and arms deals will remain impervious to the global pandemic and the West’s supposed plot to sow dissension.

S-400 anti-aircraft missiles, known for having the longest range of their kind worldwide, have figured large in Beijing’s big-ticket Russian arms deals. The S-400 is reportedly able to engage 36 targets simultaneously. That capability would be crucial as Beijing seeks to ramp up military pressure on Taiwan’s Pacific-facing littoral waters from the mainland’s southeastern Fujian province. 

In 2014, Beijing became the first foreign buyer of the hypersonic S-400 that was then offered at $300 million per launch unit. The system’s long-range would allow the PLA to target Taiwan proper as well as its fighter jets including F-16s deployed along the island’s Pacific coast. Beijing’s acquisition of the S-400, initially consisting of six batteries, also allows the PLA to cover the disputed Senkaku Islands, also known as Diaoyu, from its northern province of Shandong. Japan also claims the islands.